Medicine & Health

One in eight babies is born prematurely.Nearly one in every eight U.S. babies is born too early — three weeks or more before the estimated due date. Such premature births are the leading cause of newborn deaths and put babies at risk for chronic lung disease and other serious health problems. While some causes of prematurity are known, more than half of women who deliver early have no known risks. In an innovative approach, WUSM researchers Louis Muglia and Justin Fay are searching human DNA for clues to help explain why some women deliver early.

The magnified nanoparticles shown here are actually about 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.Chemistry meets biology in this innovative research program. Using synthetic particles invisible to the naked eye, researchers hope to better diagnose and treat childhood brain cancer, the third most common cancer of children. The particles are called nanostructures or nanoparticles because they are measured in nanometers, an almost unimaginably small unit, a billion times shorter than a yardstick.

Nearly 40 percent of babies with a condition known as Simpson Golabi Behmel syndrome will die soon after birth, likely because of heart problems related to the disorder, which causes them to grow too quickly. Researchers funded by the Children’s Discovery Institute are pursuing a unique new approach to treating this disorder: they’re hoping to use long chains of sugar molecules to coax troublemaking cells back to good behavior.

English physician David Barker noticed an interesting phenomenon during the Dutch famine in the mid-1940s. He found that babies from that era — although small for their gestational age — had a much higher incidence of diabetes, heart disease and obesity when they grew up. Barker hypothesized that the health of a pregnant woman could affect whether her child develops chronic diseases. That hypothesis has been confirmed in a number of studies since, and now, WUSM researchers are investigating in mice the link between diabetic mothers and their offspring.

Clubfoot, one of the most common birth defects, affects 1 in 1,000 children.Children can be sensitive to any physical difference they have from other children. But the patients that Christina Gurnett studies are not just worried about having big ears, eyeglasses or braces. Her patients have more emotionally devastating musculoskeletal disorders, including hands with more or less than five fingers, clubfoot and scoliosis. Since the cause of these disorders and others like them is unknown, Gurnett is examining the possible genetic causes of these common disorders, which run in families.

Smoking while pregnant combined with genetic factors greatly increases the risk of severe ADHD.Past research has suggested that both genes and prenatal insults — such as exposure to alcohol and nicotine — can increase the risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). But the identified increases in risk have been very modest. Now, a team of Washington University scientists has found that when those factors are studied together, risk of a severe type of ADHD greatly increases.

New HIV therapies have contributed to a decrease in AIDS deaths, but physicians suspected the more potent medications led to symptoms characteristic of metabolic syndrome. However, now researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that the rate of metabolic syndrome in HIV-infected patients is virtually identical to that in uninfected people. Furthermore, the type or duration of HIV therapy did not affect the rate of metabolic syndrome.

An angiogram, or X-ray image of blood vesselsScientists have uncovered a new biomedical technique that could increase blood flow to alleviate problems associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes and many surgical procedures. They found that blocking the action of a blood-clot-associated protein turns up the effect of a biologically produced gas that can open blood vessels and increase blood flow.

Courtesy of the National Cancer InstituteBreast cancer cells stained brown using an antibody that recognizes malignant cellsClinical studies are proving that the genetic profile of a tumor can greatly influence its response to anticancer treatments. Matthew J. Ellis, M.D., Ph.D., at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is conducting research that aims to use the genetic profile of breast tumors to guide breast cancer therapy and ultimately to find new drugs for treating the disease.

David G. Mutch, the Ira C. and Judith Gall Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named President-Elect II of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists. The society is a national medical specialty organization of physicians who are trained in the comprehensive management of women with malignancies of the reproductive tract.